Contact printer assembly



Dec. 1, 1970 L. W. HUTCHINS CONTACT PRINTER ASSEMBLY Filed July 15, 19682 Sheets-Sheet 1 FIGZ INVENTOR LOREN W. HUTCHINS BY M ATTORNEYS Dec.1,1970 L. w. HUTCHINS 3,544,215

CONTACT PRINTER ASSEMBLY Filed July 15, 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 A INVENTOR4 LORIEN w. HUTCHINS I o-.- -I'- x 54 55 w 55 BYWIZ yzwwgwz ATTORNEYSUnited States Patent 3,544,215 CONTACT PRINTER ASSEMBLY Loren W.Hutchins, Detroit, Mich., assignor to Douthitt Corporation, Detroit,Mich. Filed July 15, 1968, Ser. No. 744,728 Int. Cl. G03b 27/02 US. Cl.35578 7 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A photographic contact printerhaving a housing defining a printing chamber and a bed, with an improvedlight assembly mounting which includes channel tracks and rollers on thelight assembly to support and guide the light assembly. Acounterweighted control is provided on the exterior of the housing forautomatically spacing the light source relative to the bed. An improveddoor construction is provided to seal off the light assembly duringexposure. Also included is an improved light reflector.

An object of the present invention is to provide an improvedphotographic contact printer which is of such construction as tocompletely enclose protectively the light source during exposure toprotect the eyes and other parts of the operator during printing.

It is another object to provide an improved printer wherein the lightsource is movably mounted upon the interior of the housing and isproperly counterbalanced together with a manual means for effectingautomatic vertical adjustments in the setting of the light assembly fromthe exterior of the housing.

It is a further object to provide visual means for controlling thevertical distance of the light source from the bed without visiblywatching same and wherein the doors may be closed.

It is a further object to provide an improved door construction in thenature of a pair of oppositely openable coplanar doors which are sointerconnected, both may be opened and closed by the operator using onehand and leaving the other hand free for other functions.

It is another object to provide in the present photographic printer animproved light reflector assembly to provide uniform distribution oflight for improved printmg.

These and other objects will be seen from the following specificationsand claims in conjunction with the appended drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of the present photographic contactprinter.

FIG. 2 is a right side elevational view thereof.

FIG. 3 is similar to FIG. '1 with the doors open.

FIG. 4 is a rear elevational view thereof.

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary section on an increased scale taken in thedirection of arrows 5-5 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary section on an increased scale taken in thedirection of arrows 6-6 of FIG. 3.

FIG. 7 is a fragmentary section taken in the direction of arrows 7-7 ofFIG. 6.

FIG. 8 is a fragmentary section on an increased scale taken in thedirection of arrows 88 of FIG. 3.

Referring to the drawings, the present photographic contact printerincludes housing 11 with opposed front and rear walls and the opposedside walls 25, FIG. 5.

The aforesaid walls define a printing chamber upon the interior of thehousing at the bottom of which there is provided a conventional bedwhich includes a blanket frame A and a glass frame B schematicallyillustrated in FIG. 3 and showing when the front opposed coplanar bottomand top doors 13 and 14 have been opened as shown.

The lower portion of the housing includes a chamber 12 within which ishoused a transformer and vacuum mechanism or other equipment as desired,but which forms no part of the present disclosure and thus its detaileddescription is omitted.

The lower chamber 12 includes the removable partition door 15 within thefront wall of the housing, there being upon the rear wall FIG. 4 a pairof vertically spaced grilled openings 16 which communicate with chamber12 as well as with the upper printing chamber such as shown in FIG. 3.

A pair of coplanar vertically adjustable doors, namely lower door 13 andupper door 14, are mounted within the front wall portion of the housingwith their outer edges guidably received within the channels defined byangle members 17, spacers 18 and plates 19 as best shown in FIG. 5. Thelower door having a handle 21. Angle members 17, spacers 18 and plates19 thus provide a pair of opposed upright channels 20 within the frontwall of the housing to guidably receive coplanar doors 13 and 14.

These doors are adapted for opening and closing move ments in unison byvirtue of a pulley cable arrangement illustrated in detail in FIGS. 5and 8.

Bottom door 13 adjacent its opposite sides upon its interior includes apair of spaced brackets 22 whose respective ends are secured to therespective upright cables 23 which extend over pulleys 24 journalled tothe respective side walls 25, FIG. 8. The free ends of the said cablesextend downwardly and connect corresponding additional brackets 26 whichproject from edge portions of the corresponding upper door 14.

The doors are thereby counterbalanced against each other and are soarranged that downward opening movement of door 13 causes acorresponding, simultaneous upward opening movement of upper door 14such as shown in FIG. 3. Likewise, upward closing movement of door 13permits a corresponding downward movement by gravity of the upper door14.

As shown in FIG. 8, the meeting edges of the said doors have inwardlydirected flanges 27, one of which mounts a sponge rubber sealing strip28 for effectively closing off the interior or printing chamber of thehousing during light exposure.

Within the housing chamber shown in FIG. 3, there is movably mounted alight assembly 29 including a cooling blower 30, said light assemblybeing centrally disposed within said chamber for the application of anintense light source 51 upon the bed A-B during a contact printingoperation.

The light assembly includes a light housing which has a pair of uprightspaced side plates 31 which extend at right angles toward one side wall25 and adjacent thereto FIG. 6. Intermediate said side platesinterconnecting the same is cross plate 32, FIGS. 6 and 7 which iscentrally connected to the counterweight cable 33.

Said cable movably extends over pulley assembly 34- 35 which is securedto and extends transversely through a portion of the side wall 25 withthe free end of the 1 collar WhlCh on rotative ad ustment of the manualmeans is adapted to frictionally engage the outer wall of thecounterweight housing, if desired, for securing the counterweight in anydesired adjusted position relative to the slot 38, and with acorresponding adjustment of the light assembly 31 upon the interior ofthe housing. A suitable scale 41 with indicia measuring inches, as forexample, 17 through inches is applied to the exterior surface of thehousing 37 adjacent slot 38. The pointer 40 is adapted for movementrelative to said scale and atone point is connected to the counterweightat the slot 38.

Accordingly, the inch designations upon the scale 41 are adapted to showautomatically the vertical distance of the lower portion of the lightassembly with respect.

to the printer bed AB of FIG. 3 so that an accurate setting thereof canbe secured without the opening of the doors 13 and 14, and for theprimary purpose of protecting the operator from the light source duringexposure and during the printing operation.

Thus, manual adjustment of the manual means 39 with respect to the slot38 will cause through the cable and pulley assembly 33-34, verticaladjustments of the counterweight 36 and corresponding opposite verticaladjustments of the light assembly 31 upon the interiorof the housing.

The movable mounting of the light housing 31 within said housingchamber, FIG. 3, is best shown with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7.

Adjacent the ends of the side plates 31 are a pair of vertically spacedhorizontally disposed rods 42 which extend through said side plates andat their ends journal the opposed vertically spaced pairs of rollers 43.These rollers are movably and guidably mounted within the op posedspaced upright pair of guide channels 44 upon the interior surface ofhousing wall 25. Within the said channels 44 are provided additionalwear plates 45 over and along which the rollers 43 move for the primarypurpose of'supporting the light assembly 29 in the position shownrigidly and at the same time to facilitate and permit verticaladjustments thereof from the exterior of the housing.

There is provided an improved light assembly as best shown injFIGS. 6and 7 and wherein the light housing 31 includes the upwardly concaveparabolic reflector which centrally mounts an intense light source 51which may be a mercury or other type of vapor lamp capable of producinghigh intensity illumination for the contact printing process.

As shown in FIG. 6, the reflector is'elliptical in plan with itslongitudinal axis at right angles to the general plane of the lightsource 51.

The interior concave surface of the reflector throughupon the interiorof the reflector a central area 53 which is highly polished and whichextends transversely of the long axis of the reflector and withingenerally the plane of the light source 51.- v

highly p lished l m nts 53. a d 55 in some ,mannerp gvides for a maximumand even distribution of high intensity light over the entire surface ofthe bed for the contact printing operation.

Having described my invention, reference should now be had to thefollowing claims.

I claim:

1. In a photographic contact printer having a housing including a frontwall and side wall defining a printing chamber, a bed and a lightassembly within said chamber;

the improvement of means to movably mount the light assembly comprising:

I a vertically adjustable light housing mounting a light source'andincluding spaced side platesextending at right angles to said side Wall;I j spaced upright opposed guide channel tracks on said side wall; 7vertically spaced pairs of rollers .journalled upon the exterior of theside plates guidably mounted in said tracks and supporting the lighthousing for vertical movements; counterweight housing on the exterior ofsaid side wall including an upright slot; v I .a counterweight guidablymovable in said latter housing; a.cable and pulley assembly extendingthrough said.

side .wall interconnecting said light housing and.

counterweight; and manual means secured to said counterweight and IIprojecting through. said counterweight, housing, tomovably adjust saidcounterweight and light hous-.

ing.

2. In the contact printer of claim 1,the mounting I of said rollersincluding a pair of vertically spaced shafts extending through said sideplates adjacent their one ends; said cable pulley assembly includingacross plate inv .terconnecting the free end portions of said sideplates and centrally connected to said cable.

3. In the contact printer of claim 1, said manual means including ascrew shaft at one end threaded into said counterweight, a handle at itsother end, and a friction collar intermediate its ends adapted tofrictionally en-v gage said counterweight housing. I

4. In the'contact printed of claim 1, a scale withindicia uponthecounterweight housing adjacent its slot for indicating thedistancebetween said light source and said .bed;.

and a pointer movablealongsaid scale and: secured to said counterweight.I 5. In the contactprinter of. claim 1, ..there 'being a pair ofsaidside .walls, the housing front wall including" a pair of opposedupright channels adjacent its opposite sides;

out most of its surface is pebbled but there is provided The lighthousing also includes a suitable hood which coplanar lower and upperdoors movably mounted in I said channels; I a pair of spaced cable andpulley assemblies mounted. upon the interior of said side walls withrespective ends of said cables connected to saiddoors, whereby manualmovements of the lower door efiects simul u taneous opposing movementsof said upper door. 6. In the contact printer of claim 1, said lighthousing including an upwardly concave parabolic reflector mounting andenclosing said light source; said -reflector being of elliptical shapein plane with the light source lying in a plane at right angles toits-longitudinal axis; opposed internal surface-portions of saidreflector generally within the plane of I "said light source beinghighly polished, the remainder of the interior'surfac e of saidreflector -being"p'ebbled, for uniform light distribution upon said b' done pair of its side walls on the interior being highly polished, theother pair being pebbled;

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 5 1,075,680 10/1913 Andersen355-63 1,170,028 2/1916 Webster 355-63 3,308,714 3/1967 Friedel 35562 X6 FOREIGN PATENTS 6/1950 Great Britain.

US. Cl. X.R. 35562. 63

